The consensus among soccer’s global pundits is that the decision to nullify the goal that would have greatly enhanced West Ham United’s survival prospects and greatly dimmed Arsenal’s championship hopes was a difficult but ultimately fair decision, one that adds to the controversial lore of VAR but was a necessary call. 

The pundits are, of course, wrong. 

Technically, they have a point; the goal shouldn’t have stood. But in one of many errors of interpretation, the wrong foul was called. 

The transgression in question was whether West Ham forward Pablo (No. 19, maroon) had grabbed Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya‘s arm. Perhaps, but Pablo’s arm was barely under Pablo’s control. Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard (No. 19, white) is holding Pablo aloft as if they were a pair of Olympic ice dancers doing a lift. 

In the eyes of the pundits and the VAR crew assigned to this game, Pablo is supposed to move out of the way and say, “Oh, pardon me, Mr. Raya. Please, claim the ball.” And he’s supposed to do that while in the grasp of a defender restricting his movement the way a python restricts a victim’s breathing.

A more compelling case can be made that West Ham’s Jean-Clair Todibo (No. 25, maroon) grabbed Raya’s shirt from behind. Like Pablo, Todibo is being jostled if not outright fouled, but the video clearly shows Raya’s shirt going in a direction it would not have gone if Todibo hadn’t maintained a firm grasp. That’s a more clear-cut foul, reminiscent of the foul that U.S. referee Esse Baharmast saw in a Norway-Brazil game at World Cup 1998. The rest of the world missed the video evidence that Baharmast was correct until it appeared days later on Swedish TV, vindicating Baharmast after several days of vilification and not a little anti-U.S. sentiment.

Fine. Disallow the goal for that foul rather than the dubious application of physics required to judge Pablo. 

But neither one should have mattered. 

Why? Because Arsenal’s multiple fouls came first. 

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